Liz Phair
You have to do what you need to do as an artist. You have to have that courage.Collection: Courage
I knew that collaborating on songwriting would be difficult for a lot of people, because I was known very much, for my independence and the fact that I wrote these quirky songs that were not typical structure, not typical sound - you know, really original stuff.Collection: Independence
Yeah, I like to be the maker of the art. And I like and want the money. But I don't really dig being famous.Collection: Famous
I'm really happy to be a mom, and I'm proud of the phase I'm in.Collection: Mom
I mean, I think about it, but I don't design my record to get a certain public response.Collection: Design
I try to see interviewing as performance art, and just take it as it comes.
You know, you become an artist, you become an observer, of life, and you digest life by making art about it.
I am a feminist, and I define myself: Be yourself, because if you can get away with it, that is the ultimate feminist act.
I don't always trust my own instincts. It would be nice if someone else would tell me what I should do with my life!
I was raised to be a very intelligent housewife.
Young kids don't have their identity, so everything is so important. Now I'm mature. I know who I am and I know what my thing is and I know what I'm bringing. It's very clear and defined.
I think good art happens on that edge between comfortable and in a lot of pain, you know what I mean?
Lana Del Rey seems to be bothering everybody because she allegedly 'remade' herself from a folk singing, girl-next-door type into an electro-urban kitty cat on the prowl (of course I like her), and they feel she is inauthentic.
It makes sense - you wanna gather a lot of people together, and Vegas really does that well. New York can, but you know the hassles. I've lived there. It's an entirely different beast.
It was a source of shame for my family that I was in rock and roll, which is so blue-collar. It just isn't done. And I felt it, too.
Women artists need to break barriers in order for women's experience to be valuable.
You're really creative when you're in an environment that you don't know how to handle. So collaborating was like that for me. I think that was one of the reasons why I knew I was gonna get a challenging reaction.
When I use the Internet, it's pretty much strictly for music. Checking out other people's web sites, what's going on, listening to music. It's pretty much a musical thing for me.
The big news already broke. The file-sharing and all that stuff, it's a done deal. And I think figuring out how to make that a fair exchange for the people that make music is still an issue.
That's what music is to me. Like, stuff that I really like to play loud. And I've got my quiet CDs, too, that I listen to around the house, but if you can't go there, then... Everyone gets so upset with me, I can't win.
Now, in music, it seems more like the popular crowd suppresses anyone who is different.
My identity has everything to do with me and my instrument. It doesn't have to do with what production style I use, or how many people played on it, whether it's sparse or grandiose or whatever. And I'm social, frankly.
Like, I kind of developed my musical style in a vacuum. Even though I listen to a lot of stuff, the way I wrote was in my bedroom, really privately. It's still the way I write, actually.
It seems to me like the Internet allows you to break that structure a little bit. You know, here's your CD that's going into stores, here's your EP that you offer online, here's a subscription for songs you recorded on the road, here's your live stuff streaming.
I'm very cerebral. I like to think things through.
I'm competitive, so I don't like to feel marginalized by the people who sell a lot of records.
I probably had some impact, because everyone keeps telling me that I did. I like to feel like I'm coming out with something to try to make room for other young women to make their art.
I mean, I kind of remember... I'm 36 now, so it's kind of hard for me to relate to what it was like when I was 25, or 24, but I do remember a period in time when that's how I defined who I was, by the music I listened to and the movies I went to.
I just don't fit into the box.
I don't know; it just seemed like the cooler guys are playing Xbox. At least the ones I know.
I can't say I don't get nervous, but I really kind of enjoy performing now.
So how does Liz Phair feel about Lana Del Rey? Well, as a recording artist, I've been hated, I've been ridiculed, and conversely, hailed as the second coming. All that matters in the end is that I've been heard.
Picture being forced to talk endlessly about your feelings and listen and care when what you needed was just to get something done.
No matter how I do this, my best songs have profanity in them.
I'm working on a proper rock record, a good, old-school rock record. Finally.
I have my head screwed on right. I haven't been this way in a long time.
I don't think you can spend too much time as an artist believing what other people think.
I just want to make music and make a living. I just have to find the means of doing that.
I don't know what the future holds. Anything is possible.
My nails are a disaster. If I play guitar when my nails are long, I just tear them off.
I blend my green drink every morning. I also fix my son a full-on American breakfast with bacon and toast.
I prance around and dance by myself to hip-hop songs in the mirror.
I wear clothes that most people in the Midwest would probably deem inappropriate at my age. And I rock a bikini all summer long. I know that it's not normal, but I just don't care. I live once.
I'm known for being annoyingly gender-focused. It's always been my platform.
Women's bodies are used to sell anything and everything because it works, it grabs people's attention, and advertisers aren't going to stop using something that works.
The other day I was reading a blog and I linked over to Streisand's Web site, and it was amazing politically. She's so insightful and incisive. And she also says whatever she wants.
After my first record came out, I read everything. I was so amazed that I was in the press.
It's important to have people who will say to you that you're really off the beaten track.
Everything that people lob at you who don't know you, it all hurts. When you're doing something as simple as making music, which really, theoretically, shouldn't hurt anyone - I mean, it's a song! Step back for five seconds and laugh.
I remember even getting kicked out of a bar once because I was too loud and obnoxious.